Dominant Arsenal go seven clear, Newcastle sounds warning

Eddy Nketiah celebrates after rounding off the scoring at the Emirates on Monday. Arsenal beat Westham 3-1 to go seven points clear. (Photo credit: Arsenal.com)

The premier league returned to our screens on Monday with seven epic fixtures and strangely, only Arsenal won at home with five others losing and Brentford settling for a point from a winning position.

Speaking of that game at the Brentford Community Stadium, it was looking like another painful day at the office for Antonio Conte and Tottenham but like they’ve done many times this season, they clawed back into the game having conceded two goals and could even have won it at the death.

The draw was a bad result for Tottenham considering the fact that they sit in fourth, needed a win to go level on points with the champions in third but are now in danger of being usurped by Manchester United who are only four behind and with two games in hand.

Liverpool beat Aston Villa away from home on Monday and that has thrown them firmly into the top four conversations. They currently sit five points behind Spurs and with a game in hand that could reduce the deficit to just two points.

Mohammed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk gave Liverpool a first-half lead but they were pegged back in the second half by a fine Ollie Watkins header. The Villa striker and Darwin Nunez were guilty of missing lots of chances but the new kid on the block, 18-year-old Stefan Bajcetic became the youngest scorer this season with a fine finish late on.

The loss was Emery’s first in his second coming and that now means they must put everything into their new year’s day game against Tottenham. Southampton lost at home to Brighton while Everton lost it all at the death against Wolves to give Julien Lopetegui his first win in England.

Earlier in the day, Newcastle continued their impressive run with a strong performance at Leicester and left with all three points, scoring three goals through Chris Wood, Miguel Almiron and Joelington. Eddie Howe’s side won’t stop sounding out the league leaders, they’re not here to play.

In the final game of the day, Arsenal came back from an unfamiliar position, conceding early through a penalty to beat Westham at the Emirates on a night Arsene Wenger finally returned to watch the team play for the first time since his departure.

In the absence of Gabriel Jesus, Mikel Arteta handed Eddy Nketiah the role upfront and his goal, an immaculate turn, and a deft finish rounded off the scoring after Bukayo Saka leveled early in the second half and Gabriel Martinelli fired home to send the Gunners in front.

The Hammers never looked like it all game long and their goal came against the run of play. William Saliba hacked down Jarrod Bowen in the Arsenal area and Michael Oliver pointed to the spot; Said Benrahma converted and it was only in the closing minutes that Westham troubled Ramsdale again.

Arsenal thought they had a penalty in the final seconds of the first half but a VAR decision took it away. From the blast of the second-half whistle, Arsenal dominated squarely through Martin Oedegaard and Thomas Partey and the rest is seven points clear at the top kind of history.